On ‘Survivor,’ Aras won by outlasting

Terry ultimately voted for Aras, however, admitting during his jury questioning that he thought performance in challenges was more important than anything else. Clearly, Terry enjoyed having some competition, and thus Terry gave Aras his vote to win.

Immediately after he won the final reward challenge, Terry told Aras, "you are the ultimate competitor, ultimate."

Cirie was quite the competitor, too; she just couldn't build a fire fast enough to stay in the game. And ultimately, she was the indirect victim of the hidden immunity idol. Terry didn't play it, but she and Aras voted for Danielle anticipating that Terry could play the hidden immunity idol and thus vote Cirie out. As a result, Danielle allied with Terry, and forced a tiebreaker that wouldn't have happened had Terry not had the idol.

Terry was by far the most physically dominant player this season, but he came in third, in no small part because he lost the final immunity challenge, which involved balancing on a floating lily pad. He fell off first and basically handed the game to his competitors, and thus came in third place.

On some level, Terry and Cirie were both victims of their own success, as was Danielle, who coasted through much of the game and thus had no chance in front of the jury. During the reunion, Jeff Probst took a quick poll and discovered that, had Danielle taken Terry to the final two, she would have lost against him, too. Her betrayal of Courtney and lack of strong game play throughout most of the season didn't win over the jury members.

What really matters, then, is not the ability to perform consistently through all 39 days, nor to make everyone happy, nor to just make it to the end. Instead, to win "Survivor," you must outlast everyone else, positioned so that when everyone else falls, they fall around you, not on top of you. That's exactly what Aras did, and that's why today, he's $1 million richer.

Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news.

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